Undercover Videos May Be Costly for ACORN

From OneNewsNow
By Chad Groening and Jim Brown

Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are pleased the Senate has voted overwhelmingly to cut off federal funding to ACORN, in light of the ongoing investigations of voter registration fraud involving that organization.

The vote was 83-to-7 (see roll call) to pass an amendment to block the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now from receiving federal funds for housing programs. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who has been battling for accountability from the organization, says it is already under investigation in more than a dozen states for alleged voter fraud, the result of widespread allegations during the 2008 presidential campaign. He welcomes the Senate vote and hopes the House will follow suit.

"I sat down and wrote a personal note to Senator Mike Johanns [R-Nebraska] for offering that amendment to cut off any funding through ACORN housing that was in the bill that was before the Senate," he explains. "It will come back here to the House. And don't know if we'll get a clear up-and-down vote on it, but we'll get to vote on a bill with that language in it -- and that is a good step."

The congressman says the recent undercover video shot at the ACORN office in Baltimore by two people posing as a pimp and prostitute demonstrates the absolute willingness of ACORN to facilitate criminal activities. The two were given advice by an ACORN representative on purchasing a house and lying on tax forms for the woman's income.

"It looks like the culture of ACORN is such that if you walk in there with an illegal enterprise in mind, they're going to help you engage in it," says King. "Let me give credit to the young man and young lady who went into ACORN to film this. If they had not taken that initiative on their own, then none of this would have happened."

King believes the Senate vote indicates that the tide may be turning against ACORN.

According to The Associated Press, two other undercover videos depict similar situations in ACORN offices in Brooklyn and Washington, DC. And Fox News is reporting today that a fourth video shows a staffer at ACORN's office in San Bernardino giving advice to a couple -- the woman again posing as a prostitute -- on how to avoid detection by law enforcement. ACORN has received $53 million in taxpayer funds since 1994.

ACORN didn't bat an eye

Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), who voted for the amendment, says the vote to cut off federal funding to ACORN is a win for taxpayers who do not want their hard-earned money funneled to organizations who have no respect for the rule of law. (Listen to audio)

"We've tried this in the past, [in] both the House and Senate, and we haven't been quite so successful," he admits. "But in the past we didn't have the videotape, which just screamed out about the tax evasion that they were scheming [along] with the criminal activity including prostitution, the human trafficking.

"Every time the person doing the investigation ratcheted up the criminality that he was supposedly proposing, the ACORN employee didn't bat an eye," the senator remarks. "They had an answer for everything."

Wicker says as more and more Americans realize what ACORN is up to, more and more Americans are demanding that Congress not appropriate anymore money for this organization.

'It makes no sense'

Meanwhile, a Pennsylvania pro-family group is expressing outrage over Senator Bob Casey's vote to continue the ACORN funding.

Senator Casey (D- Pennsylvania) was one of just seven senators who voted against the amendment that would deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN. The other six who joined Casey in voting to continue funding ACORN were Dick Durbin and Roland Burris of Illinois, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. With the exception of Sanders, who is an Independent, all are Democrats.

Diane Gramley, president of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, says she cannot understand why Casey backed ACORN, especially given the fact that seven ACORN workers in Pittsburgh were charged earlier this year with submitting bogus voter registrations. (Listen to audio)

"It makes no sense," she exclaims. "It makes no sense why senators are willing to ignore the corrupt nature of this organization to vote to give them more [of] our tax dollars. It's just very concerning that he and the other senators who voted to continue the funding would just totally ignore the situation."

Although Senator Casey has not offered an explanation for his vote, Gramley speculates he may have been worried that he would lose votes in Philadelphia if he helped cut funding to ACORN.